Wednesday, 11 November 2009

When is G a C; E an apostrophe; O half a tilde; the letter ‘A’ a forward slash and D an L (which is actually an I). The answer, together with a few other similar problems, is on my keyboard. It is a black keyboard with white letters on it but in many cases the white has worn off. Usually my fingers go automatically to the correct place but on an odd occasion I will have a mental aberration and need to look at the keys and ‘think’ about what I am pressing. When that happens I invariably have difficulty working out where the letters are. The brain or lack of it) is a funny thing.

And while on the subject of the keyboard I only recently realised that using the shift key with the word ‘define’ altered what Google did with it.

If you insert ‘define: blog’ in the Google search box it comes up with a list of definitions of the word blog and refers you to the source of these definitions for amplification.

However, if you insert ‘Define: blog’ it comes up with the list of sites in the normal manner.

As always it has been a week of investigating words and phrases to pre-schedule them into my word blog and also of learning useless facts that I want to pass on. Like, did you know that in 1911 Pablo Picasso was questioned with regard to the theft of the Mona Lisa. There were also useful – if frightening – facts that were added to my brain (and hopefully my memory) – like, ‘A single polystyrene (Styrofoam) cup contains one billion billion molecules of CFCs--that's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000’. And, ‘Once a CFC atom reaches the ozone layer, it can take over 100 years before it breaks up and becomes harmless’.

I’ve done some embroidery and am making myself a pin-cushion in the hope that I won’t keep losing needles. I bid on E-bay for a nice silver pin-cushion but didn’t win. Then I got a message saying the winner had dropped out would I like it as the next highest bidder. The answer is ‘No’. I am always suspicious when that happens (which is all too often) that the seller has been using another identity to bid against the buyers and increase the selling price.

It has also been a week of coming across quotations that I like; such as “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home". -- Twyla Tharp.

And I played with the layout of Rambles. For months I have been concerned that the difference between the colours of links and visited links in my sidebar was so small that I kept missing postings - thinking I had visited them when I hadn’t. I can’t imagine why I didn’t just go and change it before but now it is done – hooray.

And perhaps the highlight of the week so far was reading ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Mary Anne Shaffer. I first came across the title thanks to Nan’s blog and it was just another reminder of why I passed on to her the 'Over the Top' Award yesterday. The book has gone straight onto my ‘Book of the Year’ shortlist.

About Me and my Blog

Thanks for stopping by! Would you like a cup of tea or coffee? And please, sit for a spell. If you enjoy my posts, please feel free to follow me or subscribe to my blog. This is a word verification free, family friendly blog, so everything I share here is for all ages. I am a happily married man in my late sixties who lives on the Wirral peninsula, near Liverpool, in the UK.

I'm a blogger - and nowadays that seems to be my main occupation. Rambles from My Chair is my main blog. I’m a retired local government executive - now studying how to survive a neurological disorder that gives me various problems but, hopefully, a whole new outlook on life and an increased sense of humour and perspective. There is a saying in Sweden "man måste vara frisk för att orka vara sjuk" ~ "you have to be well to cope with being ill"....

I enjoy most forms of communication and postcards are a special favourite. I used to blog as Scriptor Senex which is Latin for Old Writer but now Google only lets me post as John Edwards.

“He’s not so old. He’s just the age that he is, that’s all.” (Gerald Hammond)